Minecraft evokes much of that sense of magic and wonder for me and I didn't start playing it until my later 30s.
Other key components are:
* A world that is interactive enough to feel like a place where you are and not just imagery that you're skimming over.
* Art that is detailed enough to be evocative but not so detailed that it reaches the uncanny valley of looking real-ish but not actually real.
Minecraft does both in spades.
It felt like you were really in a place, and the lack of HUD directing you to "points of interest" made it that much more exciting and interesting when you discovered something new.
In a word - immersion. The vast majority of RPG games suck at it. In-your-face tutorial pop-ups, GPS quest trackers, complex HUDs, full-screen menus, etc.
For a taste of what properly immersive RPGs are play the Gothic series.
"Other games of this era, and even a lot of modern games, are content to resort to more video-gamey designs that remind you you're playing a video game. Gothic 1 and 2 took the extra steps to ensure that everything was as immersive as they could possibly be." [1]
Videos that give a good overview of the immersive design of the games: [2], [3].
Guide on what exactly to play:
1. Gothic 1
2. Gothic 2 Gold Edition
3. The chronicles of Myrtana Archolos - a fan-made total conversion mod for Gothic 2 that follows in the spirit of the past two games. It's as high in quality as a professional production would be. Seriously. See [4] for a preliminary review.
All are available on Steam.
[1]: https://youtu.be/_V6tdH6YRy8
[2]: https://youtu.be/qvyzjFfxiXo?t=194 (this part refers directly to immersion, for more context you can start from the beginning)
[3]: https://youtu.be/_V6tdH6YRy8?t=597 (whole video is good, but the most relevant parts start here)
[4]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2F4-2i9gGY
(not associated with the particular youtuber in any way, his content just happens to be good)
--The Phoenix Exultant by John C. Wright
If you approach stuff with positivity, openness and wonder you'll have a blast! This is my current experience with learning Go, having learned Python previously.
I don my explorer's hat and force myself to live into the text, subject or code (Herder's Einfühlung). Personally it makes the journey so much more entertaining than merely as a tools to an end.
